But that illustration - along with a New Yorker cover showing the columns of the White House lit up in rainbow colors - certainly shows how the president‚Äôs public support of same-sex marriage has pushed the issue back into the spotlight.

The magazines‚Äô choices also speak to the broad cultural impact of Obama's announcement and pose questions about whether this moment may become a lasting part of his legacy.

That's not to say the president's announcement is necessarily a watershed moment. It earned him kudos and criticism despite the fact that he left the legal standing of same-sex marriage in the hands of the states and made no policy changes.

"The fact is many Americans, which includes Democrats, have not 'evolved' on the issue of same-sex marriage," Tull said. "Mr. President, you should have stood your ground and said, that you believe marriage is between a man and a woman, but you are against discrimination of any kind. Individual states should decide what's best for their state. It is a free country and people are free to love whomever they want and that's OK with me, but I believe that marriage is between one man and one woman."

Vera Richardson, also an Obama supporter, said the president‚Äôs stance on same-sex marriage will be his undoing for re-election.

‚ÄúI am confused, I cannot vote for (Mitt) Romney, and I know Obama needs our vote, but he has caused anxiety in the black community," she said in an iReport.

But for Andrew Sullivan, the writer of the Newsweek article and also a gay man, Obama's announcement meant everything for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

"For gay Americans and their families, the emotional darkness of Tuesday night became a canvas on which Obama could paint a widening dawn," Sullivan writes. "But I didn‚Äôt expect it. Like many others, I braced myself for disappointment. And yet when I watched the interview, the tears came flooding down. ...

"I was utterly unprepared for how psychologically transformative the moment would be. To have the president of the United States affirm my humanity - and the humanity of all gay Americans - was, unexpectedly, a watershed. He shifted the mainstream in one interview. And last week, a range of Democratic leaders - from Harry Reid to Steny Hoyer - backed the president, who moved an entire party behind a position that only a few years ago was regarded as simply preposterous."

And for one Republican, the announcement swayed him toward supporting Obama.

‚ÄúI'm very happy with Obama's decision because at the end of the business day I can see my partner and feel hopeful,‚ÄĚ said iReporter David A. Seaman of Lansford, Pennsylvania. ‚ÄúI never would have thought he would do something like this. Just this decision alone made me swing way left to vote.‚ÄĚ

"African-American men seemed to understand it right away," Toni Morrison wrote in The New Yorker in 1998 about the Monica Lewinsky scandal that rocked Washington. "Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children‚Äôs lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald‚Äôs-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."

And in many ways, the shared connections or perceived ones that earned Clinton that title, mockingly or not, is part of why Sullivan has bestowed "First Gay President" upon Obama.

Sullivan writes that a black president who likely had to go through a period of self-discovery growing up as well as struggle for equality shared in some way the plight of gay Americans. As Obama eventually shattered the barrier of office to the "White" House, his announcement will allow gay Americans to shatter the stereotypes placed on them, Sullivan argues.

‚ÄúBarack Obama had to come out of a different closet. He had to discover his black identity and then reconcile it with his white family, just as gays discover their homosexual identity and then have to reconcile it with their heterosexual family," he writes. "The America he grew up in had no space for a boy like him: black yet enveloped by loving whiteness, estranged from a father he longed for (another common gay experience), hurtling between being a Barry and a Barack, needing an American racial identity as he grew older but chafing also against it and over-embracing it at times.‚ÄĚ

This week's column in The New Yorker, headlined "Wedding Bells," argues that Obama's announcement is on par with the importance of abolishing laws against interracial marriage in the 1960s.

"One day, not long from now, it will be hard to remember what worried people so much about gay and lesbian couples committing themselves to marriage," Talbot writes in the New Yorker.

"And, eventually, the Court will do the right thing on same-sex marriage, just as the President did last week. As in the Loving decision, the Court will reaffirm that the 'freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.' And it will finally uphold that freedom for gay and lesbian Americans."

soundoff(1,368 Responses)

loriey

The media always seems to have to "tag" anyone in the spotlight with a "nickname". i.e Brangelina, J-Lo etc....
First of all the President himself is NOT a "Gay President"......he supports Gay issues but he himself is NOT Gay and if he was Gay himself....so what. .
Also, President Obama is often referred to as "the first Black President". Really???? This is not fully true either as President Obama is Bi-racial as his mother is Caucasian and his father is Black. .

you will know them by the fruit they bear! a tiger cannot hide it's stripes! and so it goes with this brokeback perverted leader of the far left! he claims to be a "christian"? but i'm like rand paul...what bible is he reading from? cause all throughout scripture, God is very clear about the role of the family. and condemns this sin of perversion. woe to that generation that calls evil good and good evil. you think God was talking about this wicked and perverse generation? i do!

I'm sure you wouldn't care to live under Sharia law, so keep your own religion out of law too. If you cannot justify refusing allowing gay people to marry without using the bible, you have no arguement. You must understand that you thinking that your religion should be the basis for law is as terrifying to people as someone with beliefs different from yours using their holy book as basis for the laws that affect you.

So now you can get blown up by a E.E.D in Afghanistan, but you can't get married.................sounds like the argument 5 years ago for letting 18 year olds' vote...................eventually we will live up to both the word and spirit of the Bill of Rights...............i.e. all men/women are created and are to be treated equally.................

that name fits you perfectly fruit! it's nice to see you got it all figured out with your psycho babble 101. repent before it's eternally too late for you! Gods judgement is falling on america for it's wickedness. and you will be amongst them if you don't repent!

It sickens me that there are still so many backward, narrow-minded people in this country. Face it folks, the world is evolving quicky and if our society doesn't also we are going to be left in a dust heap. President Obama recognizes this and is "pushing the envelope" so to speak to help us along. Unfortunately it will take a few more generations until bigotry, racism and blind hatred are minimized in our country but I believe we are making great strides. It will just take time for many of us to catch up but it WILL happen. I'm proud of our President to go out on a limb for equality for all – we are ALL just human beings on the same planet with one life to live – time to evolve folks!!

@John77 – Were you born yesterday? Gay people have been on this earth since the beginning of time. Do you think that if we keep ignoring them they'll disappear? You're the exact type of person I was referring to as still being stuck in the past.

I do believe that gays are covered under this section of The Declaration of Independence!!!
I am a hetero – US Army Vet, and I fought to preserve these rights for ALL Americans!

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America-
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...

Where'd you get that silly low number? I haven't checked your figure BUT, considering all the pharmacies that have successfully stayed in business for decades, the percentage of drug users cannot be close to what you present. Also, your LGT figure: what would say about those "in the closet" that weren't counted? Because they weren't counted, we shouldn't consider it on "how normal it is"? I like that idea. So, as long as I don't get caught, I can be a thief but not really, cause I never got caught, hence, I'm a law abiding citizen... That's a nice deal

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